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Married megadonors shower millions on GOP candidates – but not always the same ones
February 06, 2023
Republican megadonors Dick and Liz Uihlein are one of political fundraising's most powerful couples, showering $230 million on campaigns in the past decade. But, in a reflection of divisions in the GOP, the pair don't always see eye to eye on who to support.
Most recently, Liz Uihlein endorsed Ronna McDaniel as Republican National Committee chair, while her husband backed insurgent candidate Harmeet Dhillon. The couple has often sided with opposing candidates, reflecting ideological differences and highlighting her engaging personality and his sometimes prickly nature, reported Politico.
“Dick is super hard core, and his wife is not so much,” said former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, who earned Dick Uihlein's backing during his 2010 election win. Candidates from “the hard right and the tea party and blow it up and burn it down — those were the kind of politicians that Dick always supported. His wife was a bit more establishment. So, they would often disagree on certain candidates.”
The couple worked together to build the Wisconsin-based Uline business empire that brought in $6.2 billion last year, and they have contributed more than $230 million to conservative candidates and causes in the last decade, along with tens of millions more given to state-level groups.
“They come at it from two different perspectives," said Wisconsin GOP strategist Keith Gilkes. "Dick is ideological and insurgent-focused, and Liz is just more about issues and about mechanics of the campaign and, ‘How are you going to win?’ and ‘What’s your message?"
"They’re completely opposite people in terms of the questions and conversations with candidates," Gilkes added.
Liz Uihlein attends RNC finance events and has served on a fundraising committee for Donald Trump, while Dick Uihlein is drawn to conservative true believers sometimes seen as lost causes, and some GOP leaders bypass him altogether to work with his wife.
“She likes to be a much more influential Republican Party donor,” Walsh said. “Dick could give a f--k about any of that.”
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A quote attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. is adorning a cop car in a celebration of Black History Month in Columbus, Ohio. The problem is, the civil rights leader apparently never uttered it.
"Be the peace you wish to see in the world – Martin Luther King Jr." the quote pasted on the vehicle's rear windscreen reads, Vice News first reported.
"Introducing ‘History 1’ – our newest cruiser to celebrate the achievements of African Americans & recognize their roles in our history. Be on the lookout for ‘History 1’ in your neighborhood & at community events during February," the Columbus Division of Police said in a tweet.
But experts told Vice News that they could find no evidence linking the quote to MLK.
“I haven’t found any traces, and it doesn’t appear in the addresses and writings I know best,” Dr. Earl Schwartz, an associate professor of religion at Hamline University, told Vice News.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University has a list of King's quotes – but this one is absent. Lerone Martin, the Institute’s director and associate professor of religious studies, told VICE, “we have no record of the maxim."
A spokesperson for the Columbus Division of Police told Vice News that over the past several months, "this same cruiser has been wrapped for LGBTQ Pride month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Veteran’s Day, and the holiday season – with plans to recognize several upcoming holidays and campaigns in 2023," adding that “we have already been approached by members of the community to have this cruiser be part of several upcoming Black History Month events.”
The spokesperson did not address where the quote came from.
Read the full story at Vice News.
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It's been roughly two months since former NFL star Herschel Walker lost his bid to become a U.S. senator representing Georgia, but the Federal Election Commission says that his old Senate campaign committee needs to clean up its books.
In a letter sent Feb. 5 to Team Herschel treasurer Salvatore Purpura, FEC senior campaign finance and reviewing analyst Bradley Austin said that the Republican's campaign still had multiple problems in accounting for its finances and he demanded fixes be filed by no later than next month.
Among other things, the letter identifies inadequate explanations for contributions that exceed legal limits on individual donations, as well as incomplete accounting for contributions from organizations that are not registered with the FEC.
What's more, the letter says that the campaign has new mistakes in trying to correct some of its old mistakes.
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"The Commission notes the redesignation or reattribution of several contributions," the letter states. "Please amend your report to disclose the proper format for redesignations or reattributions. The first entry must disclose, as a memo entry, the information for the contribution as it was originally reported."
The FEC then goes on to write a lengthy list of contributors for whom the campaign committed had "disclosed the wrong amount and/or date" of the contributions.
The letter concludes by warning the committee that it will not get further opportunities to correct mistakes without potentially facing some kind of penalty.
"Please note, you will not receive an additional notice from the Commission on this matter," Austin writes. "Adequate responses must be received by the Commission on or before the due date noted above to be taken into consideration in determining whether audit action will be initiated. Failure to comply with the provisions of the Act may also result in an enforcement action against the committee."
It's not uncommon for federal political campaigns that raise a lot of money — Republican or Democratic — to receive a warning letter or two from federal regulators about problems with their finances, be them big or small.
But Walker's campaign committee, which is still technically active and open, received numerous warnings from the FEC over the past many months.
Walker, who lost in December to Democratic Sen. Rafael Warnock, still had more than $5 million remaining in his Team Herschel campaign account as of Dec. 31, according to federal records.
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